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Zuckerberg and D’Angelo (who later became Facebook’s chief tech-
nical officer) designed the Synapse Media Player. Synapse had features
commonly seen today on Pandora and other music apps, but it was quite
advanced for the time. The player used artificial intelligence to learn a
user’s listening habits, recommend music, and create playlists based on
the listener’s tastes.
The Synapse project received a good grade at Exeter, and Zuckerberg
posted a free version of the player on the Internet under the company
name Intelligent Media Group. Synapse was reviewed by
PC Magazine
,
which gave it a rating of 3 out of 5. The player also got a good review
from the tech website Slashdot. The Synapse app became popular when
tech bloggers began writing about it, prompting Microsoft and AOL to
Two fencers compete. At Phillips Exeter Academy, Zuckerberg excelled in
fencing, becoming captain of the team. He went on to describe the sport as his
most meaningful activity on his application to Harvard University.
